Mothers are Non‐resident Parents Too: A Consideration of Mother's Perspectives on Non‐residential Parenthood

Abstract

Over the last few years, researchers have paid increasing attention to post‐divorce parenthood. To date, attention has been almost entirely focused upon non‐resident fathers. This paper considers post‐divorce parenting from the perspective of non‐resident mothers. Drawing upon findings from a narrative research study investigating 20 women's subjective experience of non‐resident motherhood, this paper highlights some of the major themes. These themes are the mother's perceived degree of choice regarding child residence, the extent to which they accept the idea of role reversal and whether they are satisfied with their level of involvement in the lives of their non‐resident children. In light of the slow but steady increase in the numbers of non‐resident mothers, it is suggested that a wider context of discussion is needed in order to incorporate the significance of parent's gender within post‐divorce parenting scholarship and debate.

Keywords:

• Divorce
• Non‐Resident Parenthood
• Mothers
• Experiences
• Voluntary
• Involuntary

Notes

see websites www.fnf.org.uk and www.fathers‐4‐justice.org/home/index.html

all names have been changed to preserve respondent confidentiality.